Forest green walls, chandeliers and bones adorn one side of the room. On the other, you’ll find authentic Afghan rugs and fashionable mannequins. Bridging the gap is a menagerie of vintage clothing and succulents, with a basket offering free “Warm Fuzzies” – cotton balls with googly eyes.
This room, located near the front of the Manitou Art Center, houses the Manitou Made Launchpad program, which launched on June 6. The Launchpad program offers affordable rental space and substantial support to three up-and-coming businesses over a three-year period. Chances are, you’ll run across one of the business owners if you ever visit the MAC, so let’s get to know them better.
Hart & Horn
Spell candles in cast iron cauldrons and original tea blends offer an array of aromas. Handmade witch hats will call to you even if you’re not into cosplay or the Renaissance Festival. Coffin nails are available for a few bucks a pop, and (ethically sourced!) bones seem to be everywhere. Spirit Halloween, this is not.
“I’m like the weird witch that hangs out in the woods and scares children. That’s my vibe,” joked Angela Hartshorn, owner of Hart & Horn.
Hartshorn has been drawn to witchcraft, nature and spirits since her early teens. Growing up on the west side of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs’ occult reputation called to her, and she’s wanted to open a witch shop there ever since.
Hartshorn, who is a studio artist at the MAC, leapt on the Launchpad opportunity as soon as she heard about it.
“I got really lucky with my neighbors,” Hartshorn said. “We’ve all bonded pretty well over the whole process because we understand what the others are going through.”
As for what exactly witchcraft is, Hartshorn says that the answer varies from person to person.
I want … to bring a little bit of magic into everybody’s life. – Angela Hartshorn
“When I teach classes, that’s the obnoxious tagline my students have heard five million times: There is more than one way to do this stuff. I am teaching you my way,” Hartshorn explained. “Please take it and do whatever in the heck you want with it.”
Some grandmothers come to her shop in search of poppets for baby protection. (Hartshorn also offers poppets for cats, which are made of catnip and valerian.) Some patrons stop by the altar to write a wish on bay leaves, which Hartshorn burns on every full moon. Whatever your witchy needs may be, Hartshorn isn’t here to gatekeep.
“I have 25-ish years of experience in witchcraft at this point, and I’ve been able to learn from masters and novices alike. I always feel like there’s something new to learn, [whether] it’s from an 80-year-old Appalachian grandmother or a baby TikTok witch,” Hartshorn said. “I want to empower people to be able to go along this journey for themselves and figure out the best things for them, and just try to bring a little bit of magic into everybody’s life.”
Obaid Afghan Treasures LLC
Six months after Mursal Akhundzada and her family immigrated to the United States, a friend told her about the Manitou Made Launchpad program. Her husband, Obaid, was a master tailor hoping to open a business in the United States. He’d written out a business plan while they had been living in Cambodia, but he’d written the plan in Dari. And Mursal learned about the Launchpad program just one day before applications closed.
Mursal cranked out a translation into English, began the application at 6 p.m., and submitted it just two hours before the application period closed.
As Mursal and Obaid waited for a response, they prayed and prepared themselves for rejection.
A week later, they received an email – they’d been accepted.
The Akhundzadas have opened Obaid Afghan Treasures LLC, a one-stop shop for authentic Afghan goods. The shop offers handmade silver jewelry adorned with gemstones, saffron, traditional Afghan clothing and rugs.
Many of the goods were loaned to the Akhundzadas by family and friends in Herāt, Afghanistan. The rugs were painstakingly woven from sheep’s wool and silk by local women, but the effort is clearly worth it – one rug is older than Mursal’s grandmother and doesn’t look more than a month old.
Obaid Afghan Treasures is just their first step.
Obaid, a tailor since childhood, specializes in dresses, suits and women’s fashion. He wants to design clothing that weaves together the cultures of Afghanistan and America.
Meanwhile, Mursal has a degree in economics and a background in nonprofit work. The biggest project she ran was a scholarship that has been distributed to over 1,000 women from across Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Obaid currently works at The Broadmoor to pay rent, leaving Mursal and their gaggle of children to run the shop most of the time. But the couple hopes to make their business a full-time venture, with Obaid running the day-to-day operations and Mursal taking on a more managerial role.
But Obaid Afghan Treasures is just their first step. The couple has their sights set on opening an Afghan restaurant a few years down the line, employing women from Afghanistan.
“Obaid has a very kind heart. These women are struggling. I can build something, and hopefully, I will help them,” Mursal said. “They can come here and work and build [their] futures for [their] children.”
Mythical Bird Boutique LLC
When Clarice Backus released her third album of original music, “Mythical Bird,” in 2022, she was sure she could make a career out of musicianship. She’d been recording since 2016 and, for this album, had worked with Los Angeles-based producer Lynne Earls. She thought she had it made, but her dream didn’t come true.
After releasing the album, she began to work at Good Eye, a vintage retail store in Colorado Springs, eventually working her way up to assistant manager. It was a creative outlet, but also hammered on a concept that appealed to Backus – rebirth. She was raised religious, but even after she had left the faith, she seemed to be born again repeatedly: as she went to college, got married, had children and got a divorce. Every time she felt that she’d lost everything, the core aspects of her being remained unshaken.
Not to overstate it, but it feels pretty heavenly being here. – Clarice Backus
The concept of an out-of-fashion jacket in a closet rising from the ashes appealed to Backus and brought back fond memories of thrifting with friends in high school.
“I didn’t know that I was finding something from the 70s for a dollar, but I thought it was cool, and I liked it, and all my friends liked it,” Backus remembered. “I don’t think any of us were going, like, ‘Oh, this is so cool. It’s from the 70s.’ Our parents were like, ‘Why are you wearing that? I wore that’ – which is what I’m saying to my kids now, who are dressing ’90s right now.”
Eventually, Backus decided on opening her own vintage boutique, which she’s been able to accomplish using the Launchpad program.
“They said the words to me, ‘We want you to succeed’ – which, by the way, is not something that was ever said to me in music because it’s just way too competitive,” Backus said. “Not to overstate it, but it feels pretty heavenly being here. I feel extremely lucky because these are my people. These are artists. These are visionaries. These are people who see things in abstract, and they see things that come from nothing.”
